1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to garments with sleeves, and, more specifically, to garments with sleeves with excellent flexibility being able to follow the physical action of the human body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, garments comprising a stretchable knitted fabric are popular since they are easy to put on and to take off, have a comparatively good fit to the body, and allow comparatively easy movement allowed for the body without significant resistance while they are worn because of good elasticity. Consequently, they are used extensively in undergarments, which often include circular knitted fabric. In addition, the stretchable knitted fabric is applied to garments such as day wears, leotards, sportswear, blouses, coats, blousons, jumpers, and the like.
FIG. 11 shows schematically a front view of an undergarment with long-sleeves and a groin piece as a typical example of conventional garments comprising a stretchable knitted fabric.
In the example shown in FIG. 11, the undergarment is made of circular knitted fabric, and the body 201, continuously integrating the breast, back, waist, abdomen, and hip areas in one unit, is sewn and joined with sleeves 200 made of the same circular knitted fabric at the seams 205; it also possesses a groin piece (a crotch) 203, which is designed to be opened and closed with suitable fasteners 204, such as grippers, hooks, zippers, or Hook-and-Loop fasteners attached to the groin piece 203. Numeral 202 shows a leghole (an opening for a leg).
In the conventional garments comprising a stretchable knitted fabric as shown in FIG. 11 for an example, the gauge of the knitted fabric is nearly uniform in all the portions, such as the breast,, back, waist, abdomen and hip areas as well as sleeves 200. That is, in the conventional garments comprising the stretchable knitted fabric, no specific gauge-changing is intentionally adopted.
Now, in the context of the present invention, physical action does not always mean special exercise such as sports, but includes physical motion which is frequently repeated in ordinary daily life, such as bending forward and stretching out the hand to take a thing located in front of the person, raising the hand upward to take a thing located above, rotating the neck or body to look backward or look aside, or leaning backward while lightly stretching the body to feel refreshed (stretching and leaning the body backward), or rotating or bending arms at joints of shoulders and elbows.
When the physical action which is frequently performed in ordinary daily activities as mentioned above is performed, in the case of the conventional garments comprising the stretchable knitted fabric, sleeves 200 gradually slide up toward the shoulder, causing a problem by generating a considerably large number of wrinkles in the sleeves, at the shoulders, or at the sides, or a problem in that a side edge of the leghole is likely to rise. Even in the case of garments for the upper body, which have no abdomen, hip and groin piece areas, nearly the same problems occur, except for the rising at the side edges of the leghole areas. In addition, in such garments for the upper body, the waist area and the hem of a body part tend to be raised upward or generate wrinkles. These wrinkles are ugly for outer garments, and in the case of underwear, they cause wear-discomfort. Even if the wearer wants to straighten it up, it is difficult to do in public, because wearer should take off her outergarment, and these wrinkles are reflected to the outer garments, adversely affecting the appearance of wearer.
These problems in the conventional garments are attributed primarily to the physical motion of the human body as described above, particularly, the motion from shoulder to upper back performed frequently in daily activities, but it is also attributed to the failure to have taken specific corrective measures against these problems.